Linares R5: All games drawn, miracle save by Anand

2/25/2009 – "Who said beating a World Champion is easy?" asks our annotator. And indeed, after running into an opening problem against Vassily Ivanchuk, Vishy Anand used some miraculous stalemate motifs to save the game. All the other games were also drawn, Dominguez-Radjabov being the most volatile. Pictures, annotations by GM Dorian Rogozenco, video interviews and another truly atrocious pun.

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XXVI Linares 2009

This year the Linares 2009 tournament is being staged only in Spain –
in the previous three years the first half was in Morelia, Mexico, and next
year the first half will probably be in the Arab Emirates. The 2009 event goes
from February 1th to March 7th, with three rest days. The prize fund is 314,000
Euros, with the winner getting 100,000 Euros, followed by 75,000 and 50,000
Euros for second and third place. There are no appearance fees for the players,
so the motivation to fight for points may be unusually high. The venue is el
Teatro Cervantes de Linares, the starting time of the games is 16:00h (4 p.m.)
Spanish/European time.

Round five report

Wang Yue against Aronian made a little convincing attempt
to improve on his early game, which he played few months ago at the Grand Prix
tournament in Russia. Aronian’s precise reaction immediately solved all
Black’s problems and in an equal endgame the players made a draw by repeating
the position three times.

Grischuk and Carlsen played a long theoretical variation of
the Sveshnikov Sicilian, where White’s plus is extremely small. The Russian
Grandmaster failed to show anything new and Carlsen easily achieved a draw after
massive exchanges of pieces.

Leinier Dominguez from Cuba

Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan

Dominguez-Radjabov was a sharp and complicated Sicilian Dragon.
The Cuban Grandmaster made a rare move, but it was Radjabov who introduced a
strong novelty and then sacrificed an exchange, obtaining very good prospects.
Black increased his advantage in endgame and could have put Dominguez on a verge
of losing by creating a mating net around the white king in the center of the
board. Instead of that Radjabov made an inaccuracy, allowing his opponent to
escape with a draw rather easily.

Ivanchuk-Anand was an amazing game, which had it all: the
rare case of a “hole” in Anand’s preparation, Ivanchuk’s
missed the win and then an incredible escape by the World Champion in a study-like
endgame. The players repeated the first 23 moves from the seventh game of the
World Championship match Anand-Kramnik, which ended peacefully in 37 moves,
after Kramnik’s precise defense. In that game Kramnik offered a draw on
move 22, which Anand (with the white pieces) rejected. Thus already then it
was clear that only White can play for a win, but apparently the World Champion
had great faith in Black’s defensive resources, since he decided to repeat
the variation in Linares with the black pieces. The World Champion didn’t
even wait to see Ivanchuk’s improvement for White and on move 23 was the
first one to deviate. That was a poor novelty, since after Ivanchuk’s
nice reply it became clear that Black will be suffering for long. Few moves
later Anand had to give up a pawn and struggle in a highly unpleasant four-rooks
endgame. It looked like Ivanchuk’s win is just a matter of time, but in
the end Anand escaped miraculously, using stalemate motifs.

In such a pawn structure the most important question is whether White is able
to advance the b-pawn to b5 or not. 13...Na6! The only way to stop White's
advance b3-b4-b5. This is sufficient for Black to hold the balance.
13...Nbd7 14.b4 a6 doesn't prevent the further advance of the b-pawn. White
plays 15.b5 cxb5 16.Nxb5 using the pin on the a-file. Next White retreats the
knight from b5 and advances b4-b5 again, with better prospects. 14.Bd2 Nc7
15.f4. Now 15.b4 makes little sense, since after 15...a6 the rook a8 is
protected and White cannot play 16.b5. 15...gxf4 16.exf4 g6

The closed character of the position brings White's bishop pair to nothing.
Together with the fact that Black has no weaknesses, that means White can't
play for a win without major risk. The same is valid for Black, who in order
to play for a win must open the position somehow, which will only favour White's
bishop pair. Both opponents perfectly understood each other's intentions and
repeated the position soon. 17.Be3 a6 18.Ke2 Rh7 19.Bf2 0-0-0 20.Raf1 Rdh8
21.Kd3 Bd8 22.Be1 Kd7 23.b4 Kc8 24.Bd2 Kd7 25.Be1 Kc8 26.Bd2 Kd7 draw. [Click
to replay]

Nowadays this is the main position in Sicilian Dragon, with a lot of move order
subtleties. For detailed theoretical explanation see the ChessBase Magazine.
15.f4. Here White has been trying mainly 15.Bh6, 15.g4 and 15.Rhe1. The
move made by Dominguez is extremely rare, but in fact is very interesting and
undoubtedly represents the result of home preparation. 15...Nc4 16.Qd3 Qc8
17.f5 gxf5. Taking into consideration Radjabov's time spent in the opening,
this new move might be the result of the over the board thinking. 18.exf5.
18.Nxf5 runs into 18...Nxb2! 19.Kxb2 Bxf5 20.exf5 Rxc3 21.Qxc3 Ne4 and
Black wins the queen. 18...Ne5 19.Qe2 Neg4 20.Rhf1

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site as well as
on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free
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See also

11/28/2018 – The moment we've all been waiting for! Live games (for Premium members) from the 2018 World Championship match in London. Every two games will be followed by a rest day until Game 12 (if necessary) on November 26th which will be preceded by an additional rest day. All rounds start at 15:00 UT (London time) / 16:00 CEST / 10:00 EST. If needed there would be a rapid tiebreak match on Wednesday, November 28th. | Photos: Patricia Claros

See also

8/27/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian tied for first place, while Caruana also tied for fourth place in the Grand Chess Tour standings with Wesley So, forcing a playoff match to be held on Tuesday. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

Video

Former World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik liked to play the French and once described it as a 'difficult and dangerous opening'. But in this 60 minutes video IM Andrew Martin suggests an aggressive and little-used idea of the renowned attacking player GM Viktor Kupreichik to counter the French: 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black. Attacking players will love this line and the unusual complications that it promotes.

"Simple yet aggressive!" Enjoy this new exciting DVD by Simon Williams. Let the famouns Grandmaster from England show you how to gain a very exciting yet well founded opening game with the London System (1.d4 d5 2.Bf4).